Liu Shaoqi, Chinese politician, 2nd Chairman of the People's Republic of China (b. 1898)
Liu Shaoqi (pronounced [ljǒu ʂâutɕʰǐ]; 24 November 1898 – 12 November 1969) was a Chinese revolutionary, politician, and theorist. He was Chairman of the NPC Standing Committee from 1954 to 1959, First Vice Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party from 1956 to 1966 and Chairman of the People's Republic of China, the de jure head of state, from 1959 to 1968, during which he implemented policies of economic reconstruction in China.

For 15 years, Liu held high positions in Chinese leadership, behind only Chairman Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou Enlai. Originally considered as a successor to Mao, Liu antagonized him in the early 1960s before the Cultural Revolution. From 1966 onward, Liu was criticized and then purged by Mao. In 1968, Liu disappeared from public life and was labelled the "commander of China's bourgeoisie headquarters", China's foremost "capitalist-roader", and a traitor to the revolution.

He was purged, imprisoned, and tortured to death during the Cultural Revolution, but was posthumously rehabilitated by Deng Xiaoping's government in 1980 and granted a national memorial service.